


Track 6 – With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles)

by REwrites



Series: Play It Again [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hogwarts Era, Inspired by Music, M/M, Marauders' Era, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 15:50:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/699933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/REwrites/pseuds/REwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus opened his mouth, a sarcastic reply on the tip of his tongue, but he hesitated for a second because the honest answer was far less amusing. These boys. This boy. His hand fell into dark hair fanned across his lap. Remus could imagine dying without them. They were so good to him. He scarcely deserved their loyalty. Their trust. He cherished them, each.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Track 6 – With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles)

  
**What would you do if I sang out of tune,**   
**Would you stand up and walk out on me.**   
**Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song,**   
**And I'll try not to sing out of key.**   
**Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,**   
**Mmm, I get high with a little help from my friends,**   
**Mmm, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends.**   


Remus watched tiredly as thin tendrils of white smoke wound their way out of the small, white cylinder nestled between his fingers and across the rippling lake. He put the filter to his lips, inhaling deeply, and exhaled a great puff of smoke, coughing as he did so. Really, he would never understand what Sirius saw in the vile things. He flicked the half-finished cigarette into the lake and leaned back against the tree feeling sulky and irritated.

Stupid cigarettes. Stupid Sirius for liking them. Probably only smoked them to irritate his parents. His own way of rebelling. Bloody idiot. Wouldn't know the meaning of the word and confused it far too often with the world trouble.

He felt guilty almost immediately. He had no right to think so poorly of his friend, even if it was probably true. But that was just it wasn't it? He wasn't sure he could still call the boy his friend—any of them.

At first he'd hardly noticed. Professors bombarded them with so much course work upon returning for their fifth year, Remus thought he might really start living in the library, if only to save himself the trip from his dorm every day. The amount of teasing he'd endure if he voiced such a thought was enough to keep him silent, however. He frequently spent time alone in the library when he was trying to catch up and his dorm mates usually left him to it, clever bastards that James and Sirius were, never needing to pick up a book unless it was to inflict bodily injury—either from a hex contained within it or to simply lob the damned thing at someone's head. Though privately he thought Peter ought to do less book chucking and more book reading if he was going to pass his OWLs, but that was neither here nor there at the moment.

At the moment, and he hated to admit it even to himself, he was lonely. He missed his friends who, it seemed, had decided he was no longer worth their time. For a few days he thought it was the badge. The blasted embossed little P pinned to his chest. They'd certainly had a good laugh over it on the train ride to school. Perhaps if he turned it back into McGonagall he would be welcomed back into the fold?

But no. The secretive behavior had begun at the end of last term. Cryptic conversations he would accidentally-on-purpose hear when he'd sneak back up to the dorm to retrieve a book (because who knew when  _Hogwarts A History_  would come in useful) would cease abruptly, followed by loud, inane conversation or suspicious silence.

Excuses to leave for long periods of time without him seemed to be more common place. While it was true he spent a great deal of time in the library, his friends were always around when he needed them. But whenever he felt like seeking out them out lately they seemed to have other things to do.

"Detention with Filch."

"But, Sirius, it's Sunday!"

"Tutoring firsties in Transfiguration today."

"James Potter tutoring first years? Surely you're joking. What about you, Peter?"

"Erm…I'm tutoring firsties with James"

Really, for self-proclaiming Marauders and Mischief Makers Extraordinaire they could be terrible liars. You'd think they'd realize he knew these tactics inside and out by now. Well, if they didn't want him around he was not going to force his company on them. He took to spending even more time in the library, sequestering himself in his quiet corner even more than usual under the guise of studying and trying to dispel the hope that they would come and drag him bodily from his sanctuary in order to do something stupid.

The conversation from thirty minutes ago kept playing itself in his head. Warm embarrassment crept up his neck as he recalled how childishly he'd acted.

"Where are you lot off to this time?" he'd asked quietly as the three boys made their way to the portrait hole.

"Just a kitchen run," James said in his Innocent Voice and wearing his Innocent Face. Remus resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Dinner was less than an hour ago, wasn't it?"

They looked uneasily between each other before Sirius stepped up. "We're growing boys, Moony," he insisted.

"You could come with us," Peter began and Sirius promptly stood on his foot.

"Nice of you to offer but I get the feeling my kind aren't welcome with you three any more." He took a moments satisfaction at their gob-smacked expressions.

"Remus, it's not like that!"

"You know we don't care."

"Don't be daft, Moony!"

He gave a wry smile. "Well you must admit, a prefect would rather cramp your style," he said, gesturing to the badge on his chest. "Why what were you thinking?" he asked, rather more harshly than he'd intended, before storming past them and out of the dorm. The scowl on Sirius's face as he left was still burning the back of his neck.

Righteous anger had pushed him out of the castle and towards their favorite tree, just out of sight from the castle but the only friend to greet him there was loneliness. He shivered and told himself it was just from the cold autumn air and wished he hadn't been so hasty in throwing the cigarette away. It might have been vile but it kept him warm.

He sighed and hauled himself to his feet, deciding this self-imposed banishment would be more productive in the company of books. He was so wrapped up in thoughts of hot cocoa and dusty shelves he didn't hear the sound of barking until it was too late.

A black blur streaked towards him. Remus scrambled for his wand, but he was hit directly in the chest and knocked flat on his back by large black paws. A ragged cough forced its way through his lungs as he gasped for breath. The black thing, which turned out to be a dog upon closer inspection, was seated directly atop his chest and doing its very best to lick every inch of his face.

He grabbed the dog by the scruff and pushed it gently away. The dog didn't seem to mind. Simply stared down at him with pale blue eyes and barked happily, its tongue lolling out of the side of its mouth.

"What the hell, Black? We said we were going to wait!" James yelled, jogging towards him, Peter trailing closely behind.

The dog bounded towards James with great exuberance, barking madly and running circles around his legs before loping back towards Remus to lick his face again.

"For the love of Godric, Sirius," James said as he hauled the dog away. "Stop snogging Remus and change back."

Suddenly, where there was a large black dog there was Sirius sitting in the grass, grinning madly and kicking at James.

"I wasn't snogging, Moony!" he yelled emphatically as he tried again to kick the bespectacled boy. "I can't help it sometimes! The dog just sort of…takes over."

"That time with Filch's cat was priceless," Peter said, and James smiled through his scowl.

"It was pretty funny. Shame you didn't actually eat her."

"What happened to the dog?" Remus interjected sharply as he scrambled to his feet. He pointed a shaky finger towards Sirius. "The dog. It was just there. And now you're there. That's…it's a spell right? What are you three playing at?"

"Remus," James began in a placating tone but he got no further before the black dog from before launched itself at him. James bounded away. Or at least it was James at first. Where there was a messy haired boy there was now a large, sleek stag being chased by the black dog. James and Sirius were no where to be found.

Remus turned his pleading gaze on Peter who shrugged and rapidly shrank before his eyes until there was a large grey rat scrambling towards his feet. The rat clawed awkwardly up his pant legs and sweater until it was seated precariously on his shoulder, pushing its twitchy whiskers into his ear.

He took a deep, calming breath.

Okay, he thought serenely. I've gone mad.

The dog and stag were winding their way back towards him morphing back into familiar-looking teenage boys, both breathless and pink cheeked and sporting identical grins. Yes, I've most certainly gone mad.

"Get off him you worm-tailed little freak," Sirius said once they'd reached him. The rodent squeaked loudly as Sirius picked it up, tail first, and held it aloft. "You'll give him all kinds of diseases," he said wagging a disapproving finger at the rat.

James took the rat in hand and placed it back on the ground. "Don't hold him by the tail! You know he hates that."

Peter sprouted back up from the ground as pointy rat features and whiskers shrunk back into his normally boyish face. "That hurts you bastard!" he said, rubbing his backside.

"I don't understand. What is going on? How did you three do that?" Remus demanded, and managed to keep the hysteria in his voice to a minimum.

The three boys shared secret smiles that were maddeningly familiar. "Come now, Moony," Sirius said throwing an arm around his shoulder. "You're a clever young man. You can work it out."

There was a long silence where only the sounds of the forest behind them and the soft slapping of water on the rocks beside the edge of the lake could he heard. Pieces of the last few minutes were falling into place but…

"But that's impossible!"

"Don't know the meaning of those words, you know that!" James said, rocking on the balls of his feet with barely concealed excitement.

Sirius used the arm around his shoulder to pull him closer and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Worked it out then?" he asked in a low voice, hot puffs of breath sending a shiver down Remus's spine.

But Remus was shaking his head violently. "I don't understand. How? Why?"

Sirius pulled away, the arm shifting from around his neck to rest one palm on his shoulder. He looked into grey eyes shining with mischief. "To be with you, of course."

"To be with me?" he repeated hollowly. "What do you mean to be with me? You're with me all the time! Well, at least, you could be but it's you lot that have been avoiding me! You don't need to be bloody animals to be with me! I—"

And realization slammed into him, so hard he was nearly knocked to the ground a second time. All the suspicious absences, the excuses, the secretive conversations. They'd been planning this. For years now. So they could be with him. All the time.

"No...tell me you didn't. Not for me. Not for this." He shoved Sirius hard, and watched the raven-haired boy stumble.

"Well who else would we spend, I dunno, three years, was it?" James asked to the group at large.

"Two years, six months, and twenty-three days," Peter confirmed dully. "That's counting the summer. Because there was work in the summer, Remus! Imagine."

"Thank you, Mr. Pettigrew. Who else would we spend two years, six months, and twenty-three days, including summer holidays, learning very complicated, not to mention highly regulated magic, for but you, Mr. Moony?"

Remus was still at a loss for what to think. He was incredibly angry at the three of them, for one. What were they thinking? Never mind they were brilliant enough to manage it at all but it was dangerous. Not to mention illegal. They risked their sanity and a sentence in Azkaban for him!

He was also touched beyond all belief. Remus had known the three boys to be loving, faithful friends. They treated him like a delicate thing, despite the fact he'd proved to them time and again he was made of sterner stuff than the three of them combined. They were always shoving food at him, asking him if needed to see Poppy, and closed ranks around him in an instant when other people got too curious. And now they'd gone to such great lengths. Risked their sanity and a sentence in Azkaban. For him.

"Oh God," he said suddenly having a difficult time breathing. He stumbled forward. Sirius was beside him in an instant, gripping his elbow gently to steady him.

"Moony…Remus, are you alright?"

"I'm…" But he couldn't speak. There was a disconnect from his brain to his mouth, and if he tried to say anything he might possibly just end up crying. So instead, he threw himself into the arms of the boy in front of him and buried his face in the crook of his neck. Sirius stumbled again, but returned the embrace warmly.

"I think he's pleased," he remarked to the others, and a moment later two thumps hit him in the back and more arms were coming around to hug him. Over his shoulder he heard a great sniffle.

"I've never felt like less of a man," James pretended to weep as he stood back.

Sirius gave a derisive laugh, releasing Remus but not before giving his shoulder a squeeze. "That must be a feat for you then considering you're the most unmanly thing to ever set foot in this school."

"This coming from a smelly unwashed mongrel like you?"

Sirius looked affronted. "I come from one of the oldest and most impeccable pedigrees known to wizard and dog-kind, as you very well know. Tales will be told far and wide about my noble stature. My lustrous coat—"

"Your vacant expression and ability to lick yourself when you think no one is watching," James finished.

Sirius turned an impressive shade of red. "That was one time and you swore you'd never tell!" Sirius shouted before the black dog was back and chasing the stag once more.

Peter huffed as he and Remus watched James and Sirius chasing each other. "It's rubbish being so small," he said regretfully. "They're always running off like that."

The words without me went unspoken but Remus heard them loud and clear all the same. He could understand well what it felt like to be left out, floundering in the wake of the two energetic boys. Lately he felt even Peter was leaving him behind.

He offered the boy a warm smile. "But there are some nice perks. Being so small. Imagine all the places you can sneak into now."

Peter shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I guess."

The barking grew closer and Sirius threw himself at Remus's feet, his belly exposed and tongue once more hanging from his mouth. James cantered forward less boisterously and lowered his antlered head gracefully. Peter seized the opportunity to transform and climb atop. James threw his head once, Peter clinging for dear life, and took off again at a fast gallop.

A long pitiful whine drew his attention. The black dog was still at his feet, eyes wide and pleading in a familiar puppy dog pout. Remus sighed and kneeled to the ground to run his fingers through the soft black fur on the dog's belly. He yipped gleefully and kicked a leg a few times.

"As if you weren't an enormous attention seeker before you became a dog," Remus muttered, sitting on the ground and allowing the dog to shift into his lap as he nuzzled his hands for more attention. "There will be no living with you after this."

Remus was unsurprised when he felt the strange sensation of dog limbs shifting back into the boyish body of his friend. Sirius beamed up at him, his head still ensconced in Remus's lap.

"You know you love it," Sirius said, leaning into the hand at his temple. "Really, Moony, what would you do with out us?"

Remus opened his mouth, a sarcastic reply on the tip of his tongue, but he hesitated for a second because the honest answer was far less amusing. These boys. This boy. His hand fell into dark hair fanned across his lap. Remus could imagine dying without them. They were so good to him. He scarcely deserved their loyalty. Their trust. He cherished them, each.

He plucked a blade of grass out of the dark locks and tossed it to the ground. "I think the better question is what would you do without me, Padfoot."

"Padfoot?"

"Well, you need a name don't you? Or do you prefer Snuffles?

"You're not actually going to let him call you Snuffles, are you?" James asked as he and Peter returned once more from their trot around the grounds.

"Only when we're alone," he said with a lascivious wink. He jumped to his feet and held out a hand to help Remus up. "So. Firewhiskey anyone? This is a momentous occasion after all and all momentous occasions should be celebrated with firewhiskey."

"I thought all momentous occasions were supposed to be celebrated with cursing Snape's hair into tentacles," said Peter thoughtfully.

James shook his head as they headed back to the castle together. "You're thinking of annoying occasions, mate. Which is pretty much any time the stupid git is around. Hence tentacles."

Twenty minutes later they were all seated on Remus's bed, shots of firewhiskey produced from the depths of Sirius's trunk held high in a toast.

"To Moony," Sirius cried, touching his glass to the others.

"To the Marauders!" cheered James.

Remus touched his glass to the other three. "To McGonagall," he said austerely and he nearly laughed at the way Sirius cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Godric give her strength to survive the next three years."

"To Minnie!" the four boys shouted and downed their drinks with various degrees of success.

By the time the bottle of amber liquid was nearly empty, Peter had fallen asleep on the floor with a discarded potions text as a pillow and James had excused himself to "take a mighty fine piss" as he'd put it. He'd already been gone for fifteen minutes and Remus would allow him only ten minutes more before deciding to check if he were still alive and had not accidentally drowned himself in the toilet.

Sirius was rambling incessantly about all the work they'd put into researching and performing "Seriously complicated bits of magic, Remus, really," and Remus listened, letting his friend's voice wash over him like a lullaby. He felt pleasantly warm from the pit of his stomach to the very tips of his fingers and toes, though, from the firewhiskey or from the sheer joy of having such wonderful friends or from the thumb that was casually tracing circles on the inside of his ankle as Sirius regaled him with tales of becoming animagi, he didn't know.

"Thank you," Remus said suddenly as Sirius was wondering if James had managed to slip and break his head open in the bath.

"Hmm?"

"I said thanks. For this. You're…"

He couldn't think of a word to describe what Sirius was. What they all were. Sirius just gave his ankle a gentle squeeze and smiled in that charming way of his.

"Anything for you, Moony," he said and jumped to his feet, pulling Remus up by the wrist. "Now, let's go make sure Prongs is still alive, shall we?"


End file.
